


Golden Scars, Broken Beauty

by Set_WingedWarrior



Category: RWBY
Genre: Bumbleby - Freeform, F/F, Feelings, Fluff, Gift Fic, Kintsugi, because if you don't write about blake repairing gambol shroud you are no one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-02-07 06:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21453670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Set_WingedWarrior/pseuds/Set_WingedWarrior
Summary: “Kintsugi!” Blake exclaimed with eyes widened from realization and smile even wider. Yang raised an eyebrow, her confused expression being enough of a prompt to make her explain “It means ‘golden joinery’, it’s the art among my people of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with gold. The philosophy behind it is basically that there’s beauty behind broken pieces, a beauty deserving to be shown.”-Blake needs to repair Gambol Shroud and Yang offers help.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 10
Kudos: 133





	Golden Scars, Broken Beauty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Savium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savium/gifts).

Blake looked sadly at what was left of her weapon.

Gambol Shroud; the extension of herself, of her soul. They’ve been through so much together; it was almost sad what happened to it. It did its job through, protecting her from her demon until the end, helping her and Yang end it once and for all.

She was going to repair it of course, with Atlas’ technology nonetheless. How ironic, after it spent most of its life destroying Atlas tech.

It wouldn’t be the same anymore. It would be something else, something new.

But Blake wasn’t the same anymore either.

The Faunus spared a look to her partner; she seemed in deep focus looking at her own arm, probably plotting something herself about what modifications she could make the next day.

Blake smiled. Maybe changes weren’t so bad, maybe it fit better this way.

Blake went to sleep with a new mindset for her future weapon.

The next day, well rested and recovered from such an intense day, the gang was brought to the academy’s armory, the group led by Penny. There they also found Pietro, ready to help and explain how all those advanced machines for the upgrades work.

Useless to say Ruby was as excited as she would’ve been in a cookie factory. She immediately patronized the poor man and asked him questions of all sort about the equipment at their disposal. Blake just listened for the little she needed, then settled on a counter with Gambol and the needed materials to fix it.

Yang joined her a little bit later after gathering her own needed pieces “Look at this Blake! I can add the gauntlet to my prosthetic now! The shotgun will get so powerful, I will obliterate Grimms in one shot!”

“Don’t you risk shooting yourself away instead?”

“Come on Blake, have some faith in me!” Yang whined. Blake just chuckled, then smiled at her.

_Of course I have faith in you. _

“What are you gonna do instead? Do you plan some cool ninja modification, or something like that?” Yang made a poor attempt on a ninja move, making the other girl laugh.

Blake wasn’t stupid, she knew exactly what her partner was doing: trying to keep her mind off from the day before, from _him_. Being aware of that didn’t mean it wasn’t working though.

“You can’t just ‘ninja’ a weapon, you know?” 

“Hey, you’re the stealthy ninja here!” the blonde shrugged her shoulders, then set the silliness aside “Seriously though, do you want to make upgrades? Need help with that?” she asked, starting to work on her arm.

The loving tone of her voice was enough to make the Faunus lose track of the conversation for a moment “Huh- no, not really. I’m fine with how it is but…”

“But?” Yang nodded, encouraging her to go on.

“Repairing this, repairing Gambol Shroud… it means that it’s not the same as before, it will never be. And it’s okay, it’s how it’s supposed to be, but I don’t want that to get hidden during the repairs. I don’t want it to look like nothing happened at all…” Blake let out a half laugh half sigh, looking down “I’m not making any sense.”

“Don’t say that.” Yang turned her attention away from her arm “I think I know what you mean.”

“You do?” Blake looked up at her, hopeful.

“Of course I do!” her partner smiled gently, and all of a sudden the morning sun wasn’t bright enough, gold not shiny enough-

Wait a minute.

“Kintsugi!” Blake exclaimed with eyes widened from realization and smile even wider. Yang raised an eyebrow, her confused expression being enough of a prompt to make her explain “It means ‘golden joinery’, it’s the art among my people of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with gold. The philosophy behind it is basically that there’s beauty behind broken pieces, a beauty deserving to be shown.” Yang was speechless, looking at her in total awe “…are you okay?”

“…it’s beautiful.” Yang whispered “It’s a wonderful idea, you have to do that!” she continued with more enthusiasm.

“I will!” Blake said, fired up with enthusiasm of her own. She immediately went through the pieces she got before. Then she scanned the area around her, and the excitement turned into disappointment.

“…what’s wrong?” Yang asked, not getting why the sudden change of her mood.

“We’re in _Atlas_. Domain of the coldest colors. Where am I supposed to find bright golden pieces?” Blake lowered her ears with sadness and disappointment.

Only a few second before she looked so happy and excited about her plan! Yang couldn’t let her feel down again.

If it was up to her, Blake would never feel bad at all.

Yang looked down at the pile of materials she needed to work on Ember Celica… and the spare pieces of her arm.

“You can use these!” Yang was quick to show her the option, eager to make any trace of sadness go away from her face “It should be enough? I hope?”

Blake looked at her like she was completely insane “Are you offering me the pieces of your arm…?”

Only in the next moment Yang realized why.

She just offered pieces of her arm, pieces of herself, to repair Gambol Shroud. The extension of Blake’s soul. The intimacy of such a gesture hit her hard, making Yang’s face go as red as her eyes when she was angry.

“Yes? I-I mean!” she panicked. Just a little bit. “If you want to… they’re yours.” Yang looked away, completely embarrassed but aware of the depth behind her words. She really meant them.

The prolonged silence was slowly killing her. The blonde was ready to swipe it out with a joke or something, _anything_ to save her from more embarrassment (and probably a little heartbreak). She could only thank how the others were all either too far or distracted to notice them.

Then Blake moved.

Without saying a word, she closely exanimated the pile of pieces Yang offered her, then took a handful and brought it over her station.

The two women worked side by side, their shoulders slightly brushing against each other, in comfortable silence.

It was the most peaceful yet understanding silence the two of them ever shared, wordlessly helping each other with their weapons in any time of need, as if they could sense the difficulty of the other like their own.

When it was over, Gambol Shroud had the most beautiful and bright golden ring it could ever desire. It looked great, but most importantly it looked _right_.

Blake smiled like a child, opening and closing the blade all over again to test its resistance. Or maybe just to enjoy once more the light reflecting on the new colored space.

She would never tell.

“Hey Yang?”

“Huh?” the blonde was already looking at her with a sweet smile of her own, content to see the happiness on her partner’s face.

“Thank you.”

It was for more than sharing some shiny spare parts, Yang knew that. As if it was possible, her smile and voice got even sweeter.

“Anytime.”

**Author's Note:**

> Gift for my friend [wolftamras](https://wolftamras.tumblr.com/) to thank her for helping me finding rwby Funkos at Lucca Comics. I promised I would've wrote this sooner or later! Thanks again 'pal!  
And thank to my friend for helping me editing as usual, and to you for reading, commenting and/or leaving kudos! I see and appreciate all of you <3 
> 
> Friendly reminder that my [Tumblr](http://set-wingedwarrior.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/set_wingedtrash/) are always open for friendly chats, and full of my idiotic comments about life! 
> 
> See you soon!


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